1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of cancer research. More specifically, the present invention relates to gene expression profiling between primary ovarian serous papillary tumors and normal ovarian epithelium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ovarian carcinoma remains the cancer with the highest mortality rate among gynecological malignancies with 25,400 new cancer cases estimated in 2003 in the United States alone. Ovarian serous papillary cancer (OSPC) represents the most common histological type of ovarian carcinoma ranging from 45 to 60% of all epithelial ovarian tumors. Because of the insidious onset of the disease and the lack of reliable screening tests, two thirds of patients have advanced disease when diagnosed, and although many patients with disseminated tumors respond initially to standard combinations of surgical and cytotoxic therapy, nearly 90 percent will develop recurrence and inevitably succumb to their disease. Understanding the molecular basis of ovarian serous papillary cancer may have the potential to significantly refine diagnosis and management of these serous tumors, and may eventually lead to the development of novel, more specific and more effective treatment modalities.
cDNA microarray technology has recently been used to identify genes involved in ovarian carcinogenesis. Gene expression fingerprints representing large numbers of genes may allow precise and accurate grouping of human tumors and may have the potential to identify patients who are unlikely to be cured by conventional therapy. Consistent with this view, evidence has been provided to support the notion that poor prognosis B cell lymphomas and biologically aggressive breast and ovarian carcinomas can be readily separated into different groups based on gene expression profiles. In addition, large scale gene expression analysis have the potential to identify a number of differentially expressed genes in ovarian serous papillary tumor cells compare to normal ovarian epithelial cells and may therefore lay the groundwork for future studies testing some of these markers for clinical utility in the diagnosis and, eventually, the treatment of ovarian serous papillary cancer.
Because of the lack of an effective ovarian cancer screening program and the common development of chemotherapy resistant disease after an initial response to cytotoxic agents (i.e., platinum based regimen), ovarian cancer remains the most lethal among the gynecologic malignancies. Thus, the identification of novel ovarian tumor markers to be used for early detection of the disease as well as the development of effective therapy against chemotherapy resistant/recurrent ovarian cancer remains a high priority.
The prior art is deficient in understanding the molecular differences between ovarian serous papillary cancer cells and normal ovarian epithelium. The present invention fulfills this need in the art by providing gene expression profiling for these two types of tissues.